An Englishman in Mexico Teaching English to Mexicans

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The (Ever So Slightly Late) New Year’s Post

So, it’s that time of year again – one of reflection and looking forward. Also TV, food and alcohol. Someone on Facebook said that there’s something cleansing and focusing about these blog posts. I’m not sure how much there is in that, but it’s worth a try. Mother Superior is singing ‘Climb Every Mountain’ on my Nanan’s TV as I type this post. I’ll upload when I get back to Mexico, where I have the Internet.

First thing is to look back on 2013. It was a year where I never seemed to be sitting still. As such, I’ve felt that a lot of things have fallen onto the back-burner. More on that later. Here are all the things I got up to this year:

I moved house three or four times this year after getting tired of the hostel-style situation I started the year in, then personality clashes with three housemates I moved in with, followed by a month stay with a friend and colleague, before moving into my current flat. First as a subletter looking for a housemate, and now alone as the full tenant. I’m considering whether or not to continue in this situation or not.

I started Module 2 of the DELTA: a miserable, poorly-organized experience that is vital for career advancement. It’s only getting these two sentences, as I’ve moaned about it enough this year.

I changed jobs from one school where I was travelling around Mexico City – poorly paid and exhausted – to one based almost entirely in one building where I have the time and resources to give the kinds of classes I should be given. I’ve found myself taking on more responsibility, to the point that I’ll be starting full-time come term-time.

In my personal life, I’ve had two ‘serious’ relationships that fizzled out after less than three months. I’ve also vowed twice to keep things casual for a while. The latest being around the time of writing. Let’s see how long that lasts. Either way, I’ve decided that discretion is the better part of valor. I aired too much dirty laundry in the closing weeks of 2013. Need to try to keep a lid on that. If nothing else, to curb my reputation as a Casanova…

So, yes, what with all that going on in 2013, things like travel, parties, hobbies and weight-loss were not priorities as much as I would have liked. Although I began to redress the balance – particularly as the DELTA started to wrap up – I intend to keep them high on my priority list in 2014.

2014 is going to be the year of ‘Work-Life Balance’ for me, I think. That’s not balancing my free time with my job, but balancing the things I enjoy with the things I don’t. Parts of both my professional and personal lives fall into each of these categories, but I need to make sure that the divide between ‘fun’ and ‘not fun’ is on the right side. Work to live and all that.
So, yes. That’s my year.

I’ve also seen the Doctor regenerate, three incarnations of Sherlock Holmes solve a lot of cases and fallen behind on Supernatural and The Walking Dead. Capaldi will be awesome. Anyone who disagrees is just going through the usual cycle we all go through when we get a new Doctor – grief, doubt, interest, enjoyment. Then when 12 leaves it’ll all start again.

So yes. At this point, I have nothing else to add. May write more before the new draft actually gets uploaded. Until then, faithful (and possibly mythical) readers!
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As it turns out, I do have a few more points to add. I’ll talk about TV first. With a bit more distance, I can say that the Doctor Who Xmas special was a total mess. It rushed around filling plot holes, and forgot to have a plot all of its own, despite what I thought was quite a strong start. Still, I think the 11th Doctor’s era has been a bit aimless since Amy left, so perhaps it was appropriate that he ended in the same way.

I’m enjoying Sherlock at the time of writing. This season seems to have a much narrower character-focus, rather than the story-focus it had in previous seasons. Nonetheless, I’m loving seeing those characters again, and to me it speaks of a Season 4 sooner than we think.

I saw Star Trek 2. It’s not very good, in my humble opinion. It’s loud and shiny and exciting, sure, but the characters (putting aside comparisons with the original series) are wafer-thin. There’s no time for any real development or feelings, and the new female character strips down to her underwear for no obvious reason, save that she’s a woman who looks good in her underwear. Uhura’s has a triumphant moment as a professional translator, and also spends a lot of the film having a lovers’ tiff with Spock. They two never speak, failing the Bechdel test; as though you needed a test to see how little woman are thought of in this movie. The inevitable sequel could use some decent characterization, stronger roles for woman, and ideally a little space exploration. Also Klingons.

Okay, done with telly now. The other thing is that a member of my family who was having a relatively routine medical procedure has been diagnosed with something much more serious. Much much more serious. She is dealing with it a lot better than I am, marinating in my own guilt that I’ll be leaving the country in a couple of days (if you’re reading this, I’ve already left). 10,000 miles is a long distance to try to be supportive over. And when the bad news starts rolling in, I would be around to support anyone.

So, yeah. That’s my New Year’s post. May or may not add more later. See you soon!

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So the cancer appears to be deal-with-able, and doesn’t appear to be a ticking time bomb. Despite what it says on the NHS website, her odds are good for seeing another Xmas or two.

I’m also single now, in possibly the long
est breakup in history (around a month). So there’s that.

This post has been sitting in my draft box for a while, so I’m just going to post it as is.